The Neighborhood Theatre Group will present its annual Black Cat show, bringing cable access host Ghoulita Graves to its Huron Valley universe in the "The Curse of Blood!"
Performances run Oct. 16-18 and Oct. 22-24 at the Back Office Studio at 13 N. Washington St., Ypsilanti.
The Neighborhood Theatre Group is known for its original plays, sketch comedy and musicals. Each of NTG's productions are considered "theatre from scratch," as the website states. Kylista Geiger, NTG's development director and director of this Black Cat production, told The Echo that the Black Cat show is NTG's signature Halloween production.
"So, every year we do a Halloween show, which is our Black Cat production. It started off as a cabaret, and then the last four years or so, we have been doing original productions," Geiger said. "This one is part of our Ghoulita Graves universe. So think Elvira, Svenghuli — those kind of horror television show hosts."
"Black Cat: Ghoulita Graves presents...The Curse of Blood!" is a musical set in NTG's Huron Valley universe, in which many of its shows take place.
"For this one, we've got Ghoulita Graves presenting an '80s vampire movie, which will be the play. So, the movie that is set in the universe that Ghoulita Graves will be presenting is called 'The Curse of Blood!' — vampires are descending upon Huron Valley, and we have our three teens that have to deal with this curse of blood while being high school students, and try and stay alive," Geiger said.
This is one of NTG's devised shows which the team began working on in June. The core production crew gathered together with various ideas and figured out what they wanted the show to look like. Geiger told The Echo that while putting the show together initially, they pulled from ensemble. All of the characters in this production are made up by the NTG, with Ghoulita Graves being a reoccurring character in the Huron Valley universe. The main characters in this show, however, are original to this particular Black Cat production.
"We have an ensemble of artists," she said. "So we pulled from our ensemble to make this. So we wrote the show for the actors. We knew who we were working with and what characters we wanted."
Geiger's favorite part of NTG's devised shows is watching the collection of ideas turn into an actual finished script. Even with a fully written script, Geiger enjoys the ways in which the NTG members experiment and play around with the scenes and their characters. It adds more originality to the show, she said.
This show stars Jennifer Jakubowski, Jessica Lee, Patrice Linman, Dena Moscheck, Greg Pizzino, Josh Stewart and Drew Tallquist.
"Ghoulita Graves Presents...The Curse of Blood" will be performed Oct. 16-18 and Oct. 22-24 at the Back Office Studio at 13 N. Washington St., Ypsilanti. The Sunday, Oct. 18 showing will be at 2 p.m., while the rest of the showings will be at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $12 for seniors and students. Tickets can be purchased online through NTG's website.
Water Tower Distilling Co. will offer show-themed cocktails before and after the production. Attendees of all ages are also invited to dress up for a costume contest hosted by Ghoulita Graves. There is no intermission for this production. The Back Office Studio is an ADA accessible building, organizers said on the show webpage.
